fall folly

A couple days ago I was walking through campus and I saw two men running around college green. I watched them for a while in confusion before I realized what they were doing: these two grown men were running around trying to catch falling leaves. Seeing them play their childish game made me smile, step back, and consider the simple pleasures in life.

With finals right around the corner, I would encourage you to take a step outside and appreciate the beauty of creation. I think you'll realize that God is an amazing artist.

giving thanks

So another Thanksgiving is here and let me tell you, I’ve got A LOT to be thankful for. But instead of making a never-ending list of all the blessings, friends and family I’m thankful for I want to share with you a list of things I love about Thanksgiving:

Spending time with family.
Unfortunately this Thanksgiving it was just me and pops, but still it's wonderful to see family.

Sleeping in.

Playing golf with the Pops Thanksgiving morning.
A great Lee men tradition.

Watching/playing football.

Macy’s Day Parade.

Putting up Christmas decorations.
This year we're going with the reindeer and sled. It's a pretty impressive display if I may say so myself.

Mama Lee’s home cooking.
Mama Lee always knows best and cooks best too.

Being in Kansas.
No place like home.

Happy Thanksgiving y'all.. from my family to yours!

prayer request

please keep my family in your prayers.

1 Corinthians 15:54-55

brr.. it's cold out here

The word "fan" derives from the word fanatic which according to Merriam-Webster dictionary means, "marked by excessive enthusiasm and often intense uncritical devotion."

The word "fan" according to the GCC '09 brothers means standing outside in 40 degree weather with no shirts on as permanent marker ink seeps into our skin. Saturday, the GCC girls played the RCF girls in the first ever flag football game. Unfortunately we lost, but seeing our girls fight hard and have fun was definitely worth it in the end.


It says GCC! I would've chosen a bigger photo of us... but didn't want to stumble the ladies :)

Two days later and the exclamation point is still on my chest.

shout-out to Hyung

I've always thought that my "Hyung" (older brother in Korean) Eddie was quite a remarkable person; someone I love and respect dearly. Apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks he's pretty cool.

Eddie was featured in an article of the most recent edition of KoreAm Journal, which is a magazine for Korean Americans. The article is called, "College Bound: Step out of the Ivy and onto these standout campuses". It's supposed to be an article that spotlights non-ivy league schools and their students, but they heard about Eddie and wrote about his story too.

Here's an excerpt and picture:

Eddie Lee, 21
Senior, Harvard University
Government major
Specialty: Politics

OK, so he’s an Ivy Leaguer, but Eddie Lee’s story is too good to pass up. Months before graduating from Harvard, he decided to take a voluntary leave of absence. Believing he needed to be part of a bigger cause, Lee dropped his studies temporarily to join the Obama campaign. His parents disapproved at first, but Lee earned their vote of confidence after demonstrating how committed he is to the Illinois senator’s candidacy. “This is something that I’m always going to look back on and be very proud of,” he says. “There’s nothing that I believe in more than this campaign. My whole life, I’ve always wanted to be someone that’s willing to drop everything for something I believe in.”

http://www.koreamjournal.com/Magazine/index.php/kj/2007/october/feature_story/college_bound/(page)/6

Personally, I think this may just be the first of many to come. By the way... I've heard that coolness is a hereditary trait =)

dear '09 Sisters,

So a couple weeks ago I wrote a blog post about a term I called, “man-love.” This was one of my favorite posts and apparently a favorite among most of the boys; however, I got a couple of comments from disgruntled girls who had differing sentiments.

Anyways, last night, the ’09 GCC Sisters hosted “09 Brother’s Appreciation Night” – an amazing night of fun, football, and fellowship. It was rather evident that this night was a culmination of a lot of thought and hard-work. I thought that this would be an appropriate way to say thank you sisters:

Main Entry: GCC ’09 Sisters
Pronunciation: oH-nīn sis-tərs
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English

1: The body of girls who attend Grace Covenant Church and are members of the 2009 class.
2: The talented ladies who cooked amazing food, organized exciting games and demonstrated their love during yesterday’s Brother Appreciation Night.
3. The caring and compassionate friends whom the ’09 brothers could not live without.
4. The best sisters EVER.
4a. Girls, last night was really an awesome night. Thanks for putting up with (and loving) a bunch of immature and ridiculous little boys like us. Although, we’re not always the best at showing our appreciation to you, we hope you know that the event was really encouraging and touching for all of us.

With love,
’09 Brothers.

hydrate responsibly

I'd like to preface this blog post by first saying that I'm not a big proponent of "fads." For example, I'm not a big fan of Mac's. Why? Because now a days EVERYONE is buying a MacBook. I know reasoning sounds ridiculous but it just makes sense to me. I don't like to be a "part of the crowd;" the only exception to this comes when I'm an early adopter (Wharton-term) or one of the first people that begins this fad. For example, I began using Gmail the summer of 2004 when it was still in Beta testing and no one knew what the "G" in Gmail stood for.

But now I must confess that I've eagerly bought into one of the latest product fads... Vitamin Water. I was quite averse to drinking it at first because I thought it was a rip-off: $1.50 for watered down popsicle water. But then my older brother, Eddie, got me hooked; he told me that it not only tasted great but that it gave him nutrients and energy. That got me intrigued, so I began drinking them... and I haven't stopped since.



I've tried nearly every flavor and the "Focus" Kiwi-Strawberry is my favorite. I love it because it tastes good (subtlety sweet), it refreshes me (almost certainly a placebo effect), and the bottle is very aesthetically pleasing. The only drawback to drinking "Focus" is that it's bright pink. Not exactly the most masculine looking drink but still worth every drop. Apparently I'm not the only who thinks so because Vitamin Water is now EVERYWHERE.

spread the vitamins and hydrate responsibly. (btw, I received NO commission from Vitamin Water for this post... although I should).

be the remedy

Today we went to the David Crowder Band Concert "The Remedy" guest starring Phil Wickham and The Myriad. It was really amazing.


here's some food for thought: if there are so many Christians, then how come this world isn't a better place? here are some of the lyrics sung tonight... think about it.

He's the remedy
Let us be the remedy
Let us bring the remedy

When all the love in the world is right here among us
And hatred too
And so we must choose what our hands will do
Where there is pain
Let there be grace
Where there is suffering
Bring serenity
For those afraid
Help them be brave
Where there is misery
Bring expectancy
And surely we can change
Surely we can change
Something

(contribution by "smother")

sharing is caring

So recently a friend of mine told me about a very easy way to help families in need this Thanksgiving season. All you have to do is go to: www.spreadthesharing.com and type a short story about a time that you shared or someone shared with you. For each story, Country Crock (the Butter company) will donate a meal to a family through America's Second Harvest.

This is a really simple way to give thanks, here was my "story:"
Last spring break a bunch of friends and I traveled down to Miami to spend a week building houses for Habitat for Humanity. Being able to share our time, energy, and resources was really rewarding.

I would really like to encourage everyone to take a couple minutes to do it as well. And once you have, please share your story on this blog with a comment (you can do it anonymously). I think it's encouraging to hear how other people have shared or been shared to.

Consider this.

A good friend of mine forwarded me this email and it's a bit long but certainly worth reading:

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a l augh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it ... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in. My Best Regards.

Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein